Episode Twenty Transcript - The Butterflies On The Concrete Podcast: What Got Me Through The Week?

(Audio for this podcast can be found under the Episodes Tab on the navigation menu)

Hello and Welcome to this week’s episode of the Butterflies On The Concrete Podcast: What Got Me Through The Week? This week I actually want to talk about a few things! Two webtoons I’ve been reading lately, and also two dramas that I adore, the Korean drama, Doctor Slump, and the Japanese drama, Plus-sized Misadventures in Love!

So, recently I’ve started reading the webtoons My Secret Boyfriend and LMLY, and so I wanted to recommend them even though they aren’t new, they’re just new to me. I think both would be excellent source material for dramas in the future.

My Secret Boyfriend is about a young woman named Darcei, who flys to South Korea to start her dream career and also meet an online friend for the first time. The twist is that her secret boyfriend - this online friend of hers - is actually someone who’s famous that she ends up working with, but she doesn’t know at first that it’s him.  This webtoon caught my attention very quickly, and it’s ongoing so it hasn’t been completed yet, but so far it’s pretty solid.

LMLY is a really wholesome webtoon, the sort of story I would’ve loved reading when I was younger, but can still appreciate now. The premise is that two classmates - Leon and Sofia -  get assigned to a school project together, and it turns out that Leon has a crush on Sofia, but this is the first opportunity that they’ve had to actually interact with one another. Sofia’s friends keep pressuring her to get into a relationship, by setting her up on dates, and she isn’t happy about it so she asks Leon to be her fake boyfriend.

It’s a really sweet story so far, and it’s ongoing so hopefully more episodes will be released in the upcoming months, but what stands out to me the most about this webtoon is the artwork. I really love the artistic style of this webtoon. My favorite part of it is probably how the story is being told to us and the choices the artist is making when telling it.

I don’t think a story needs to be complex to be good. I actually think the most important thing in telling a story is that it’s communicated in a captivating way, whether the plot is complex or simple, because storytelling isn’t an easy thing regardless.

Now before I talk about the dramas I want to discuss today I’m going to read a quick disclaimer. While there are a lot of comedic elements in these two dramas, they sort of deal with some heavy subject matter as well, so I just wanted to add this in.

This podcast is for entertainment purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for any professional medical, psychological, financial, legal, or other advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you feel you are in a life-threatening situation, please promptly contact the appropriate authorities, medical providers, or crisis intervention service providers in your local area for immediate assistance.  All rights are reserved and this podcast, in whole or in part, may not be distributed, reproduced or otherwise used without the written permission of Hyssop & Ebony LLC.

Okay! So, Doctor Slump is one of my favorite dramas this year so far. The premise of the show is that two former classmates reconnect while both are at low points in their lives. It stars Park Shin-hye, who plays anesthesiologist Nam Ha-neul, and Park Hyung-sik, who plays plastic surgeon, Yeo Jeong-woo. Nam Ha-neul quits her job at a hospital after becoming depressed due to unfair working conditions, and Yeo Jeong-woo closes his practice after an unexpected incident happens causing him to lose everything he’s worked hard for overnight because of it.

I love Park Shin Hye’s acting. I’ve been a fan since You’re Beautiful, the drama Flower Boy Next Door used to be one of my favorite shows, and Heartstrings is also a show of hers that I’d love to suggest you watch as well. The dramas I enjoyed Park Hyung-sik in previously are What Happens to My Family?, High Society and Strong Woman Do Bong Soon.

This show deals with some heavy subject matter like I said, but it has a lot of comedic elements so such topics never once feel overwhelming for the viewer. These former classmates are actually former rivals - each trying to be at the top of their class - and so that makes this even more fun to watch, to see them reminisce about the past. The competition between them is very, very funny, and it creates some tension, but, as time goes on and they grow closer to one another, in part because he ends up unknowingly renting out the rooftop apartment in the building that she lives in with her family, we see their familiarity with one another become the strong foundation on which their relationship is built. In this show, Jeong-woo sees his once biggest rival essentially become his biggest supporter and defender.

I love this drama so much, and the reason for it is that as I watch them comfort each other in the show, I feel comforted. As I watch them overcome their struggles in the show, it makes me feel like I can overcome whatever I’m facing in my life, which makes this a rare gem of a drama because not every show can make a viewer feel that way.

It’s a very healing and uplifting drama. There’s a lot of not great, and negative stuff that happens, but the tone of it is uplifting in the midst of such things. It never feels overbearing in its heaviness. If it gets heavy, the writer finds a way to make it bearable, and makes it so that none of it is gratuitous, there’s always a reason why these things are happening, and you can trust that all of it is working towards this final uplifting message.

I appreciate the way this show normalizes getting help for mental health issues and I think that it’s beautifully done. Jeong-woo has so many people abandon him, but Ha-neul and her family are there for him. She knows him as a person and knows that he would never do anything to intentionally harm someone else, and her faith in him, even though they haven’t seen each other for years, just shows how amazing their foundation is as they start this relationship together. She sees him in his worst state and she’s there for him without question, believing in him when no one else does, and he’s comforted that finally someone sees who he is when even the people who’d been with him for such a long time questioned his character. He had people he called his friends, and his family, and he was super popular and had a lot of fame, but they all abandoned him, whereas Ha-neul is there for him and stands up for him and tries to help him at his lowest moment. Likewise, he’s also there for her when she’s depressed. He gives her a listening ear, and tries to make her happy, and is always willing to be there to console her even though he has his own challenges he’s dealing with. There really aren’t loose ends in this show, it has a wonderful ending, and I enjoyed the relationship with the second lead couple as well.

I will say that Park Hyung-sik’s comedic acting is top tier, in that it’s sincere, but I noticed towards the end of the show that he also doesn’t seem concerned about preserving his celebrity image at all, and so he’s willing to do ridiculous or childish things if the plot calls for it, which makes him a better actor. Like he goes all in for a role, and this drama made me appreciate his acting more than I did previously. He’s hilarious, but he also can portray the serious aspects of his roles authentically as well. It’s really impressive.

And Park Shin-hye’s acting - which I’ve always appreciated - only continues to improve as time goes on. Her ability to express her emotions is at a whole other level now. She’s always been talented, but this show confirmed for me that she only gets better as an actress the more she matures as a person.

I want a season two of this show so badly. I would love to see more of all the characters - the first lead couple and the second lead couple - and how they face new challenges as they build their lives together with their partners now that they’ve overcome their initial struggles. Only time will tell if this will happen or not, but I’d love to see it if it did.

Oh! And I forgot to say Doctor Slump can be found on Netflix.

Next, I’d like to talk about the Japanese drama, Plus-sized Misadventures in Love! It’s a drama that I fell in love with almost immediately. It’s only eight episodes and I watched it on the Rakuten Viki app. The premise is sort of sad, and yet, this show is so full of positivity that it sort of overshadows most of that sadness by the end of it. The show is just so extremely good that I feel like I have to recommend it.

The premise of this show is that the female lead, Kouda Yumeko, played by Ueda Kanade, tries to take her own life, but then she wakes up with amnesia and transforms into a completely different person, mentally not physically. Before the incident, she essentially has depression, and low self-esteem. However, after the incident, she has forgotten all of her pain, and lives life as if it’s something precious. In fact, she doesn’t seem to understand why she would’ve attempted to take her own life at all, because this new version of her has much higher self-esteem, so much so that she can  only see her strengths, and she’s able to view herself as the lovely and wonderful person that she is who is absolutely worthy of love and all good things in this world. She can finally see herself in a positive light, which is something she wasn’t capable of doing before. For example, she works in the planning department for a candy company, and she used to never share her ideas, but now she shares them openly and they’re successful and she gets praised as a result.

Obviously, this is just a story. In real life, most people do not get second chances like this after they make such decisions. It’s best to never take such drastic steps to be begin with.  As someone who has struggled with depression in the past, while watching this show, I really empathized with the female lead, and I felt really grateful to be in therapy, because it’s been a difficult journey, but it’s allowed me to learn how to radically love and accept myself as I am, including my imperfections, my mistakes and my weaknesses, like how awkward I probably sound as I try to do this podcast right now. All of that is ultimately what it means to be human. And by loving and accepting myself, I can extend that same radical acceptance to other people in my life, appreciating them, and accepting them for who they are, and meeting them where they are instead of having unrealistic expectations.

As Yumeko navigates the world with amnesia, she embraces whatever challenges big and small that come into her life with a positive outlook - including getting lost on her way to work, and we also watch as she falls for someone that she finds hyperventilating at the park and offers a bottle of water to. It turns out to be the same man that she actually had pictures of in her phone, meaning she must’ve had a crush on him previously, but she initially worries that she used to be a stalker which is hilarious. The person in question is the male lead, Yuki Keisuke, who’s played by Kusakawa Takuya, who is a member of the Japanese band, Bullet Train.

I’m going to speak about episodes in a little more detail now, so there might be spoilers ahead.

Episode Five of this show sort of demonstrates what I mentioned earlier about the benefits of radical acceptance. When the male lead, Keisuke, explains his past to Yumeko - that in exchange for his mom getting treatment for cancer, he became vice president even though his friend was up for that job and then it sparked rumors of him cheating with his friend’s wife. His friend’s wife is the president’s daughter, who he accompanies because her husband, who’s also his friend, ignored his requests to pay more attention to his wife and therefore neglected her. Yumeko listens to what he has to say, and stands by Keisuke’s side and helps him rebuild his relationship with his mom at the hospice she’s staying at, since he’d neglected his mom to focus on his work. Afterwards, and this for me is the best part - when Keisuke thanks Yumeko for always encouraging him and not judging him for his past, he starts to see her surrounded by sunlight - which is how she’s always viewed him since she first met him, particularly during the morning chats that they have in the park near their company.

Her love for herself ultimately allows her to encourage other people, which leads to those people reciprocating that encouragement to her in later episodes when she eventually regains her memories and reverts back to her depressed self, struggling to make sense of what’s happened to her. I made a note that one of her coworkers says to her that sincerity is her strength.

Though it isn’t a guarantee, oftentimes, if you’re supportive of others, they will be that way towards you as well, in return. If you accept others for who they are, they often accept you in return.

In Episode Eight, Yumeko and Keisuke confess their love to one another after she reads through her notebook where the version of her with amnesia wrote encouraging messages. She tears out the page of her notebook where her depressed self said terrible things, because she’s sick of thinking that way, then she runs to the rooftop and Keisuke is there hoping to see her after they’ve lost contact because she ignored him reaching out to her once she got her memories back. Also, in this episode, the friends she made while she had amnesia encouraged her to be more confident and to trust herself and her talent more when making pitches at work, and regarding her beauty as well.

We see Keisuke and Yumeko’s actual first meeting prior to the incident - when she was escaping her coworkers who bullied her, and he was on the roof stressed out. We find out that she overheard a conversation with Keisuke and another coworker where he said he had a certain type and that’s why she attempted suicide thinking that she could never be loved by him, but it was just a misunderstanding where he said whatever he could in that moment to get that person to leave him alone, placating him basically, so it wasn’t his true feelings.

As I watched this show, I felt like one of the messages could be that we often tell ourselves lies believing them to be truth, and in the process we devalue ourselves as unworthy of certain things, or unworthy of pursuing a certain life experience. Thoughts are just thoughts, not the truth, just words our brain produces, assumptions and perceptions we make as we move through the world that aren’t actually real. Keisuke loves Yumeko just as she is - even if she isn’t as bubbly as she was before, he accepts her and says that he wants to remain by her side.

By the end of the show, she has her love, and her friends, and is successful at work because she has accepted herself and chosen to love herself as she is instead of hating herself because of other peoples' judgmental words. It’s absolutely beautiful and I cried as she spoke about accepting herself.  In the show she says something like she ‘can’t be the version of herself that never cares about others’ opinions, but with the help of the people who love her, she’s been able to love herself and let go of her self-hate.’

And so, at the end of the day, it’s all about mindset and confidence. I think the show implies that you can have the life you want as long as you don’t put yourself in a box like Yumeko did. She was speaking so negatively about herself, not pitching ideas and not trying to obtain the life she wanted because she was so scared of being rejected. But when she got amnesia and loved herself fully,  she brightened the lives of so many, her coworker who was jealous of her ideas being chosen became a good friend, she spoke honestly to a designer when working on a candy idea and it lead to a good collaboration where her idea became a hit product, she helped Keisuke go from being sad and stressed to courageous and happy - able to overcome his problems and concerns. This show was so funny and also so heartfelt, it’s one of my favorites now.

I loved all of the actors. And I love how Keisuke gets jealous over the new employee on the planning team calling Yumeko by her first name, and her doing the same, and how when people say mean things about her he’s ready to shut them down and confront them about it, even getting a bit jealous when that new employee stands up for her when he wanted to do so first. So many aspects of this show are just handled so thoughtfully and wonderfully. Although the premise is quite sad, most of the show is hilarious, and that’s why I’m recommending it.

Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to this episode. If you’ve also read the webtoons I’ve mentioned, or watched Doctor Slump, or Plus-sized Misadventures in Love! please let me know your thoughts! The transcript and audio for this episode will be posted on our website, HyssopandEbony.com on our Blog & Transcripts page.

Until next time!

Episode Nineteen Transcript - The Butterflies On The Concrete Podcast: What Got Me Through The Week?

(Audio for this podcast can be found under the Episodes Tab on the navigation menu)

Hello and Welcome to this week’s episode of the Butterflies On The Concrete Podcast: What Got Me Through The Week? This week I want to discuss two Chinese dramas, The Legend of Shen Li and Master of My Own.

The Legend of Shen Li is a fantasy romance drama that has Zhao Li Ying, as the female lead, Shen Li, and Lin Geng Xin, as the male lead, Xingyun, who is also known as Xingzhi. I’ll admit that I was hesitant to watch the show at first because of the premise, but I’m so glad that I gave it a chance. 

I just finished watching it using the Rakuten Viki app, and the Tencent App just so that I could see previews and watch the early release of the last few episodes, but I think it’s also on YouTube, and it is a 39-episode masterpiece that I loved from beginning to end.

The leads have such amazing chemistry, perhaps because they worked together in another drama prior to this called, Princess Agents. Zhao Li Ying is also the lead actress in one of my favorite dramas, Boss & Me.  The most recent show I saw Lin Geng Xin in is the drama, Master of My Own, which has Tan Song Yun, as the lead actress, and I’ll also be discussing that show a little bit later because after finishing The Legend of Shen Li I really wanted to rewatch something else with him as the male lead.

Lin Geng Xin’s portrayal of Xingzhi in The Legend of Shen Li was subtle, yet hilarious. He has a captivating presence in the show that made me feel drawn to him as a viewer.  Zhao Li Ying’s a phenomenal actress and she shines so bright in her role as Shen Li. She’s such a strong character and her fight scenes are so intense and impressive.

The Legend of Shen Li begins with Shen Li running away from the Immortal Realm to avoid an arranged marriage with someone in the Divine Realm. She ends up in the mortal realm and gets rescued by Xingzhi, who appears to be a sickly mortal with limited magical capabilities - such as the ability to foretell the future. When Shen Li enters the mortal realm, she’s injured, and so she loses her human form, and is in the form of a phoenix, but her feathers have been burnt off. Xingzhi buys her from a market where she’s sold after being mistaken for a chicken, recognizing that something is special about her.  They don’t get along at first at all. She’s arrogant and argues with him while trapped in her phoenix form, but from the beginning she appreciates his cooking skills, and their bond seems to grow from there.

The time they spend together in the mortal realm is crucial to the entire show. The foundation and bond that they build while there is what carries the whole rest of the story. She falls in love with him after she regains her human form, and she ultimately wants to protect him. But what makes him stand out the most to her, and to the viewer, is that from the very beginning he protects her and keeps her safe. He is very considerate of her and treats her as if she’s someone who should be cared for and protected. I will say that it’s quite amusing because when she first gets there she keeps trying to run away, um, but that just puts her into danger because everyone views her as a chicken so they all want to like, you know, cook her, but he’s always there to rescue her, and she ultimately ends up staying with him because she realizes that he won’t harm her like other people will.   Meanwhile, in the immortal realm she’s known for being a warrior who’s always in battles because she oversees the military. So he treats her as if she’s a woman first, and a military leader second. And he’s the only person in her life who cares for her in that way. When she ultimately has to leave him behind, because the authorities from the immortal realm are searching for her and threaten him when they find her, she’s reluctant to leave him behind, and saves him by giving up 500 years of her cultivation with a kiss before they part ways, because he’s injured. While he stays in the mortal realm, she goes back to the immortal realm and tries to move on, but he remains on her mind. And as a viewer, you’re left wondering what will happen next. Will they ever see each other again? And how will that reunion take place?

I won’t say any more because I don’t want to spoil this show at all. I truly believe it should be watched from start to finish, and that the gems that emerge along the way should be discovered as you’re watching because it’s more fun that way. For that reason, I won’t even speak on favorite episodes for this show because it’s bingeworthy in its entirety.  Every episode offers something good.

But I will say this, the way that he looks at her throughout, the amazing fight scenes that she dominates, the way he’s always teasing her and the wholesome banter that’s shared between them, those are aspects of the story that I’ll always be fond of. I also feel that way about how he hesitates to admit that he cares for her, even after she’s confessed her love for him, but yet he’s always there to protect her and heal her. Xingzhi always finds a million excuses to be with her and spend time with her. He always wants to remain by Shen Li’s side. And when it gets to the point when he thinks that he’s lost her, he’s willing to do anything to find her again, even if it means going against nature itself. Okay, let me not say more. Those are just some of the elements of this story that I adored the most.

It's an epic love story, that I loved. Absolutely loved it. It’s a great work of fiction, about a love that conquers all, but along the way they must always take into consideration their responsibilities to society at large. They’re often constrained by those obligations, which impede their ability to love one another fully, and yet, they do the best that they can with the time they’ve been given. Please watch The Legend of Shen Li if you haven’t yet. I don’t want to give anything away so I didn’t say that much, but it’s so worth it.

After falling for Xingzhi as a character, I started to rewatch The Legend of Shen Li from the beginning, but then I decided to rewatch a different show with the same male lead first before diving back into it. That show is Master of My Own, which is a modern drama, that has romance elements, but is actually more of a female empowerment story in my opinion. I watched it on the Rakuten Viki app, but I think it might also be on YouTube as well. I’ll also say that anyone who watches Shark Tank will probably enjoy it.

Tan Song Yun plays the female lead character, Ning Meng, who works at Joint Capital, an investment firm, owned by the male lead, Lu Jiming, played by Lin Geng Xin. When I first watched this drama, I didn’t have much of an opinion regarding the male lead, good or bad either way. I simply watched the show because I believe Tan Song Yun is an incredible actress and so I’ll watch any drama that she’s in. However, now that I’ve rewatched Master of My Own - after seeing Lin Geng Xin in The Legend of Shen Li – my eyes have truly been opened because I can appreciate his acting in ways I didn’t before.  Lu Jiming is more abrasive and arrogant than Xingzhi. I prefer Xingzhi if I have to choose between them. However, I can recognize the subtleties in expression and the warmth Lu Jiming exudes towards Ning Meng, better now that I’ve watched The Legend of Shen Li and I have a greater respect for Lin Geng Xin as an actor. So much so that towards the end of the show he seemed really, really charming in a way that I didn’t realize the first time I watched it. I might’ve felt his acting was a bit boring in the past, but upon this second viewing, I can see how extremely capable of an actor Lin Geng Xin actually is.  Being able to express a variety of complex emotions in a subtle and restrained way, is actually quite effective and impressive. I may have underestimated him before, but won’t in the future.

The premise of Master of My Own is that Ning Meng has been Lu Jiming’s secretary for three years, but human resources promised that if she worked for three years as a secretary she’ll be able to transfer to another department to be an investment analyst and work on investment projects instead. On that day, three years later though, she is told by Lu Jiming that he wants her to remain a secretary and that he won’t support her efforts to transfer to a different department at all. He’s actually quite short tempered and not a very appealing character at first, because he dismisses her ambitions and seems to look down on her as only being capable of being a great secretary and nothing more. It’s only when she resigns that he allows her to have the opportunity to grow within the company so that he can keep her there, but that ultimately gets stifled by in-office politics, causing her to decide to leave the company so that she can try and make her dreams a reality somewhere else. It’s difficult for her in the beginning, but once she’s given an opportunity, she blossoms and soars to the top of the field very quickly, and he realizes soon afterwards that he was wrong, but it takes some time for him to let go of his pride to admit that. In his own way, he helps her the best that he can along her journey, and eventually he realizes that he loves her, but by then she’s already dating someone else.

When something happens to his family, and his company, and his empire falls, Ning Meng is willing to help him start over and from that moment it becomes clear to the viewer – if it hadn’t been before - that while he might’ve started off the show extremely rough around the edges, he isn’t actually a bad person. Lu Jiming initially has bad communication skills, and often says the opposite of what he means, but he’s good to the people who are around him, helping them when he can, and trying to protect them in the way that he thinks is best, and once life has humbled him, in the way that it often does to many of us, he changes for the better as a person, and appreciates those around him even more than he did before. There’s a small, and strong network of people around him who stay by his side at his worst moments, including Ning Meng, and they help him to rebuild, and it’s very heartwarming to watch as a viewer.

In some ways, Lu Jiming’s arc is one of redemption. He goes from being very arrogant and inconsiderate of others’ feelings, to losing what was most important to him, and then we see him start to regain some of it back. That theme is echoed in the character arc of Ning Meng’s senior from college, the second male lead. His college sweetheart dumps him for a rich guy after graduation, and so he works hard to get to the top of the investment field to prove to himself and to others that he can be just as amazing and wealthy as the guy who stole his girlfriend, but along the way he makes some major mistakes, and it’s Ning Meng who helps him to remember the person he used to be. The kind of man that he was before he experienced heartbreak and lost his way because of it. His character has a similar redemption arc to Lu Jiming’s and it’s quite emotional to watch. He has all of these riches but lost himself, and with Ning Meng’s guidance, he chooses to let go of what he thought he wanted, so that afterwards he can have a second chance at living his life in a more principled way, going back to the type of person he once was back when they first met. Someone with integrity, who wasn’t focused on revenge, and had goals that went far beyond making money. It reinforces the idea that no matter what happens in your life, you can always choose to change for the better. It’s never too late to make that decision for yourself.

There are no perfect characters in this drama. They all have flaws, as they’re all written fully. The male lead is wealthy and great at running his business, but he also has a terrible temper and says discouraging things to the female lead which make him quite unlikeable at first. Still, he grows a lot as a person and he treats her better later on. And the female lead is ambitious and diligent at her job, but she also makes unfounded assumptions and acts emotionally out of spite after leaving Joint Capital, blaming the male lead for things that he didn’t do, and she’s very stubborn, refusing to accept help from others once she starts working as an analyst, which forces her to often take the more difficult path as a result. Ning Meng’s best friend also is an example of this. She relies on her partner too much, blindly trusting him and believing in their relationship so she isn’t self-sufficient at all, which ends up hurting her once her partner betrays her, but then she gradually learns how to stand up on her own afterwards.

No human is perfect, and their imperfections – and being able to see them triumph in spite of them after setbacks and missteps - are what make this such an interesting drama to watch. It’s a story of success and failure, and a story about growth and redemption. And with regard to Ning Meng, in particular, this show encourages us to remember that in life we get to decide who we are and who we’re going to become. We shouldn’t let anyone else write our story based on their internal biases and misperceptions of who we can be. She follows her dreams and succeeds, and it’s extremely inspiring and motivating to watch it all unfold.

I don’t know if I’ve expressed my thoughts clearly during this episode or not, but I hope that some of what I’ve said encourages whoever might be listening to watch these shows if you haven’t seen them before, or perhaps rewatch them if you have.

The transcript and audio for this episode will be posted on our website, hyssopandebony.com.  And I just want to say thank you so much for listening to this episode!

Until next time!

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Episode Eighteen Transcript - The Butterflies On The Concrete Podcast: What Got Me Through The Week?

(Audio for this podcast can be found under the Episodes of The Butterflies On The Concrete Podcast: What Got Me Through The Week? Tab on the navigation menu)

All rights are reserved and this podcast, in whole or in part, may not be distributed, reproduced, or otherwise used without the written permission of Hyssop & Ebony LLC.

Hello and Welcome to this week’s episode of the Butterflies On The Concrete Podcast: What Got Me Through The Week? Before 2023 officially comes to an end, I want to talk about some of the albums and tv shows that have gotten me through this year.  

Let’s start off with the music that I’ve been listening to often these days.

Olivia Rodrigo’s album, Guts, is one of my favorite albums released this year. I ended up listening to it for the first time just out of curiosity because it’s her sophomore album and it can be difficult for an artist to top their debut, but I think she might’ve actually surpassed it. Of course, it’s  just my opinion, but I think I initially viewed her as a pop artist, and she is, but Guts is more rock influenced than I expected, not just a typical pop offering, and I love it for that reason. I grew up listening to Fefe Dobson and Avril Lavigne, and love artists like Paramore, so I think that’s part of why I appreciate that aspect so much.  I’d recommend all of the songs on the album, but the absolute standouts for me are: “Making the Bed,” “Logical,” “Love is Embarrassing,” and “Pretty Isn’t Pretty.” “Making the Bed,” “Logical” and “Pretty Isn’t Pretty,” are just very heartfelt and beautifully written. “Love is Embarrassing,” is just, it’s hilarious, and it’s a very honest look at what it can be like to fall in love with the wrong person. If you’ve listened to this album also, please share your favorite song because the whole album is just really well done.  

Another project that I’m really enjoying right now is Jessica Jung’s new EP, Beep Beep. Before I talk about that though, I wanted to talk briefly about some of her other projects, and how I became a fan. I used to be mostly a casual listener of Girl’s Generation’s music, which is probably how a lot of people know her, but I actually became a fan of hers specifically after watching her act in the drama, Wild Romance. Her first solo project, With Love, J, is an EP that I’d like to mention because I still listen to it quite often, even though it was released back in 2016.  The title track from that EP was the song “Fly,” which features the rapper, Fabolous, and it’s a song that’s perfect to listen to if you ever need motivation or encouragement. Now, with regard to her newest EP, Beep Beep, it’s really good, and I think what I enjoy the most about it is that it’s so refreshing to listen to. In my opinion, it doesn’t sound like a lot of the music that’s out there right now. It’s an album that I can listen to straight through without skipping any songs, that just makes me happy to listen to it, and it’s so comforting to listen to. She’s always been an incredible singer, but it’s as if she knows exactly what her sound is, and though her music has certainly continued to evolve, she isn’t trying to drastically deviate from what her fans expect from her. She isn’t blindly following current trends like a lot of other artists have been doing lately, which I appreciate as a listener. Instead, it’s as if she is just unapologetically herself, and is confident in what she has to bring to the table, as she should be, and because of that – as a listener - I feel like it allows her to standout in a very crowded genre. The whole EP is something I’d recommend, and the title song, “Beep Beep” is really fun to listen and dance to, but my favorites are: “Better Late than Never,” “Get it? Got it? Good,” featuring Amber Liu, and “Set Me Free,” because they’re so empowering to listen to.

The last album I’ll mention that I’ve been listening to recently is A New Thing by Madison Ryann Ward. I was scrolling through TikTok and heard one of her songs playing in the background of a random person’s video, and I immediately went to look it up on Spotify. Lately, I’ve been feeling like I’m in a period where I’m transitioning between different seasons of my life, and so I’ve found her music to be quite inspiring and uplifting to listen to. I feel that way especially about the title track, “A New Thing,”as well as songs like “Go Back,” and “Light (My Time Has Come),” because they help me to keep in mind God’s goodness, and to not get distracted by the daily inconveniences of life. It also references one of my favorite passages from the Bible, Isaiah 43:19, which according to the New Living Translation reads in part, and I quote: “For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?” And I believe the King James Version is specifically referenced, and I quote, “Behold, I will do a new thing[.]”

Some other songs that I’ve enjoyed listening  to A LOT this year are “Yet,” by the King will come, “Big God,” by Terrain, and “Jireh,” by Elevation Worship and Maverick City Music, featuring Chandler Moore and Naomi Raine.

Next I’m going to talk about a few of the shows that I enjoyed watching this year.

The first is a variety show that I watched earlier this summer on the Prime Video app, called Jinny’s Kitchen. Basically, a group of celebrities open up a pop up restaurant in Bacalar, Mexico that serves Korean street food for eight days. It was so entertaining that I have to recommend it.

There have been previous iterations of this show in the past, with a group of somewhat different cast members in each version. What enticed me to watch this time around is Kim Taehyung, or V, from BTS. Although I initially started watching because I was intrigued after hearing he would be joining the cast, what kept me watching was the fact that I’d watched shows or movies starring each of the cast members in the past, and so seeing them all working together in that sort of fast paced environment was really fun.

I first watched Park Seo Joon in A Witch’s Romance, but truly became a fan after seeing him in Kill Me, Heal Me and She Was Pretty. Those shows really solidified how talented he is in my eyes and his acting skills have only gotten better over time. He keeps improving so I keep watching his dramas and hoping that I’ll be drawn in. I’d like to mention Fight for My Way and What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim because they are amazing shows of his that I would recommend as well.

The restaurant is named after Lee Seo-jin, and I loved watching him in the drama Marriage Contract. Other cast members include Jung Yu-mi, who I’d previously seen in the dramas, In Need of Romance (2012) and Que Sera Sera, and Choi Woo Shik, who I’d previously seen in the drama, Rooftop Prince, and the hit film, Parasite.

Watching these talented actors train before traveling to Mexico, then run errands like going to the market, planning the restaurant menu, preparing the ingredients and the meals for customers, interacting with customers, getting recognized by customers (Woo Shik and V mostly), as well as setting sales goals and exceeding them was so much fun.

Sometimes they had slow days, other times they had really busy days. Sometimes they took time off from work, other times they struggled to promote the restaurant. There was something so enchanting about seeing them working together as a team towards a common sales goal, and watching their excitement as the amount of customers grew - until there were people lining up to eat there! The dynamics between them were great - so many were at play at once. For instance, Seo Joon supervised V, but Seo Joon is also friends with V, and then there’s the added layer of them being both very, very famous.

It was also amusing to see the reactions of the customers with regard to how spicy some of the dishes were also. Some customers found some of the dishes to be too spicy, while other customers didn’t think any of the dishes were spicy at all.

The biggest thing I took away from this variety show was that I really want Park Seo Joon to play a chef in a romantic comedy, or romance drama eventually. Hopefully it will happen in the near future because I think he would be great in a role like that because of how well he managed the kitchen in this show.

There are several Japanese dramas that I watched this year on the Rakuten Viki App that I absolutely adored. The drama that kept me hooked the most as I watched it each week was The Date of Marriage. This show is so, so good. It’s only eight episodes also, which is great if you’re looking for a short, but satisfying drama to watch, and part of me wishes it had been more episodes because I would’ve watched them if they had been available.

The premise of the show is that the female lead, Kawai Yoshiko, played by Ohara Sakurako, wants to get married in a year – by her 30th birthday - and is expecting her boyfriend of three years to propose but she ends up getting dumped instead when he tells her about a job transfer to another city for work. Her coworker, Yuki Masaomi, played by Matsuda Genta, sees her crying about it on the street afterwards and later, while trying to comfort her at a café, he suggests that -if she’s willing – he will marry her in a year instead.

So the next part is a bit of a spoiler, so I apologize in advance, but the thing that makes this drama so wonderful is that her coworker’s suggestion seems so random until we learn that he’s actually been secretly in love with her for quite a bit of time, and then – from the viewers perspective at least – it changes from a silly, absurd suggestion to an endearing declaration of his love, but she doesn’t know any of it. Only the viewer is aware of how he feels about her and why.

In fact, neither of them is sure of how the other person feels as we see them awkwardly interact with one another after this daring offer of his, and to make things even more complex, they’re both overly considerate of one another, and so there are a few misunderstandings that happen between them. But luckily, from what I can remember, most of the time those misunderstandings got resolved fairly quickly, which was a relief for me because as a viewer I don’t like too much unnecessary conflict in my romance dramas.

Once they’re together, they have a very sweet and supportive relationship. And I was most impressed with Matsuda Genta’s acting in particular while watching this, and so I’m looking forward to seeing more of his dramas.

Lastly, One-sided Love Gourmet Diary has two seasons and I watched both of them because I had to know what was going to happen. The premise is quite simple: The female lead, Tokoro Madoka, played by Motokariya Yuika, is in her thirties and works at a publishing company, and she has a crush on one of her coworkers. He’s the eye candy of the office, quite popular and highly sought after, and she doesn’t have the confidence to approach him. So, knowing how shy she is, one of her authors that she works with encourages her to get closer to him and learn more about him in a unique way. Not by speaking to him directly, but by eating the same food as him – separately, which is interesting, right? And so she eats the same meals as him, and daydreams about what their relationship would be like during her meals, because that’s safer than actually telling him how she truly feels and getting rejected.

But when they start gradually getting placed together in real life situations– through a work project and meeting at the same restaurant by chance, for instance, opportunities arise for her to get closer to him outside of her imagination, and so she has to decide if she’s willing to take that step forward, and try to be with him, knowing that she might fail, or remain stuck in her daydreams - and alone - forever.

This drama is very funny, and worth watching, but I also found myself wanting more from it at times when it came to the development of their relationship. I did really enjoy watching both seasons of this show, but I still wonder what this premise would be like if it were remade perhaps as a Korean drama or an American one. I feel as if the relationship probably would have developed more quickly.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode. If you’ve also watched any of the shows I mentioned, or listened to any of the albums or songs that I talked about, then please let me know what your thoughts are! You can leave a comment on our website hyssopandebony.com, or on this episode’s post on our Instagram page at WhatGotMeThroughTheWeek. You can also send an email to  whatgotmethroughpodcast@gmail.com. The transcript and audio for this episode will be posted on our website, HyssopandEbony.com.

Until next time!

A New Thing

Hello! It’s been a while since I’ve posted here, hasn’t it? And somehow this year has already flown by! But, before the year is over, I’ll be adding a recap podcast episode discussing some of the shows and music that have gotten me through these last several months so stay tuned!

I also have something new in the works that has kept me quite busy lately and will be launching soon as well.

Thank you to everyone who’s stopped by the website this year, I truly appreciate it. I hope to be more prolific in 2024, so look forward to it!

In the meantime, please stay well!